was GREAT. I've really enjoyed my new office environment - nice atmosphere, surroundings, pleasant people, clear direction... it's just all a breath of fresh air! Had a chance to meet several new folks and also to learn more about the print side of the business. Got to go to 2 "press checks" where the designer reviews a print at the press prior to running a job. That way, there's on last review to make sure the printed result matches what the designer intended. The 4-color press I looked at was quite an impressive piece of machinery. The print people I met were VERY helpful, offering tips to make both our lives easier. Very cool.
Got the email situation on the way to being fixed. Swapped our domain and email service over to another host. Hopefully, the DNS changes I made will go into effect in the next few hours making our transition complete. We'll see.
For lunch today, I met up with Sarah at The Brick. Had a good time catching up on the latest with her. Going to be heading back there tonight to check out Gulliver with some friends and co-workers. It's also nice to once again be developing a social life. Ahhhh... Normalcy.
Last night, I met up with another friend at Simp McGhee's for a DELICIOUS meal. Going to have to do that again soon!
Friday, July 30, 2004
Monday, July 26, 2004
Start of an era...
Today was my first day at my new office. The first order of business was to get some photos made of me and the other new employees at the agency for the company website. Later, Michael (one of the designers) and I headed over to the newspaper office for some press release photos as well. Before lunch we had a staff meeting with the goal of getting everyone up to speed on the current business.
Worked on a Macintosh today for the first time in a VERY long time. That's going to take some getting used to. Luckily, it's a temporary situation as I'll soon be ordering a PC as my regular workstation. Ugh... our email situation is in need of help. I could never sucessfully email myself today. Our webhosting partner is implementing some type of spam control system and they're saying it could be the end of August or September before they are done with the implementation!?! I'm going to look into that more in depth tomorrow to see if I can rectify that sistuation. It's unacceptable.
Email issues aside, everything else is pretty nice. I can actually say I had a nice day at work today. That's something I haven't been able to say for quite some time now. It feels good to be able to say it, that's for sure.
After work, I met up with the crew at the Guad. All the usuals were there plus Dabney. Her sister joined us later for our walk down the mall. Headed home after that.
Worked on a Macintosh today for the first time in a VERY long time. That's going to take some getting used to. Luckily, it's a temporary situation as I'll soon be ordering a PC as my regular workstation. Ugh... our email situation is in need of help. I could never sucessfully email myself today. Our webhosting partner is implementing some type of spam control system and they're saying it could be the end of August or September before they are done with the implementation!?! I'm going to look into that more in depth tomorrow to see if I can rectify that sistuation. It's unacceptable.
Email issues aside, everything else is pretty nice. I can actually say I had a nice day at work today. That's something I haven't been able to say for quite some time now. It feels good to be able to say it, that's for sure.
After work, I met up with the crew at the Guad. All the usuals were there plus Dabney. Her sister joined us later for our walk down the mall. Headed home after that.
Saturday, July 24, 2004
Now THIS is interesting...
I was a little bored tonight so I thought I'd Google my old high school's name back in Knoxville to see if there was any good info out there to peruse. One of the first hits I got was the above link for MTV's Johnny Knoxville's bio. I thought, "what the heck" and read through it. To my surprise... Johnny was a buddy and classmate of mine! I was a senior and he was a freshman but we hung around some of the same circles. I yanked out my senior yearbook and sure enough, there he was. What a small world. I went to school with "THE" Jackass. That's hilarious.
End of an era.
My last day at Intergraph was yesterday. YA-HOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
I showed up for work around 10 but it looks like I could have waited until after lunch just in time for my exit interview. Oh well. It gave me some additonal time to finalize packing my things and being sure I got everything. I did a secure delete on all my files so that the next person to get my PC can start with a fresh slate.
Headed over to HR for my exit meeting and talked things over with Annette before I hit the road. It was an amazing feeling, the weight of a job where there was no light at the end of the tunnel has been lifted off my shoulders (and unfortunately has been put on someone else). My former director called me on my cell as I was out and about needing more information about what I did.... sigh.
Me and A#2 headed to HSV to catch The Bourne Supremacy since the only theater in Decatur that was showing it was Tetanus Cinemas. That's my new name for the Carmike here since it's a dump. You need to wear old clothes and shoes since you'll get crap on you AND your shoes will stick to the floor. Hopefully some bulldozers will drive around that place soon.
Movie was great. Some of the camera work left a little something to be desired but it was enjoyable, much more so than the previous one.
I showed up for work around 10 but it looks like I could have waited until after lunch just in time for my exit interview. Oh well. It gave me some additonal time to finalize packing my things and being sure I got everything. I did a secure delete on all my files so that the next person to get my PC can start with a fresh slate.
Headed over to HR for my exit meeting and talked things over with Annette before I hit the road. It was an amazing feeling, the weight of a job where there was no light at the end of the tunnel has been lifted off my shoulders (and unfortunately has been put on someone else). My former director called me on my cell as I was out and about needing more information about what I did.... sigh.
Me and A#2 headed to HSV to catch The Bourne Supremacy since the only theater in Decatur that was showing it was Tetanus Cinemas. That's my new name for the Carmike here since it's a dump. You need to wear old clothes and shoes since you'll get crap on you AND your shoes will stick to the floor. Hopefully some bulldozers will drive around that place soon.
Movie was great. Some of the camera work left a little something to be desired but it was enjoyable, much more so than the previous one.
Thursday, July 22, 2004
It's almost over.
Tomorrow is my last day at the 'graph. While I'm sad that I'll no longer see some of my friends on a daily basis, I'm excited about the new ones I'll be getting to know. I swung by my new office last night on the way home and checked on things over there. Got a brief run down on their server and backup system. It's a straightforward setup, nothing complicated. One of the first things I'm going to do when I get over there is evaluate their current IT environment and see what, if anything needs to be changed or upgraded for better performance. Wheeee!
Once I got home, I warmed up on my drums for a while then packed up my stuff for band practice. That went well and went fast. The usual group (the b's, the a's + Sharon - Stacey's sister) mounged it over to O' Charleys for some Irish food. Had a fun time there! My food was decent for the 2nd time in a row so things look to be be improving there for sure.
Oh, in other news Kailyn and I had an "incident" the other night as I was babysitting... I was teaching her how to say "My name is Kailyn" when I noticed that my legs suddenly felt damp under where she was sitting. Lifted her up and found that both legs of my jeans were soaked with pee. Nice. Brought her downstairs to her mom. There was a ladies get together thing going on in the kitchen and when they saw me and what happened, everyone was rolling. I think someone asked if I was okay or needed another pair of jeans to which I replied, "No problem, it's just urine". I don't think I ever envisioned myself saying that. My jeans remained slightly mounge for the rest of the night.
Ok, I know you might be wondering what "mounge" is. Sharon, who is from Minnesota, was inventing words last night. "Mounge" was the first one which quickly turned into things like:
Mounge chair
Teacher's Mounge
Mounge-tain range
Look's like your dog has mounge
My mounge is acting up again, etc.
Something also happened with the mis-use of the word "contents" but I can't recall exactly how we made fun of that. Maybe Kevin can elaborate in his blog.
In other travesties of the English language, my manager's manager came in and asked me how to spell "solemn" yesterday. I spelled it for her and she went back to her office. I followed her there and when I walked in, she looked at me and said "it still doesn't look right". "It doesn't look right to you because you didn't know how to spell it in the first place" (heh). I took her to www.websters.com to show her that my spelling was correct. I think I rolled my eyes at this point.
Once I got home, I warmed up on my drums for a while then packed up my stuff for band practice. That went well and went fast. The usual group (the b's, the a's + Sharon - Stacey's sister) mounged it over to O' Charleys for some Irish food. Had a fun time there! My food was decent for the 2nd time in a row so things look to be be improving there for sure.
Oh, in other news Kailyn and I had an "incident" the other night as I was babysitting... I was teaching her how to say "My name is Kailyn" when I noticed that my legs suddenly felt damp under where she was sitting. Lifted her up and found that both legs of my jeans were soaked with pee. Nice. Brought her downstairs to her mom. There was a ladies get together thing going on in the kitchen and when they saw me and what happened, everyone was rolling. I think someone asked if I was okay or needed another pair of jeans to which I replied, "No problem, it's just urine". I don't think I ever envisioned myself saying that. My jeans remained slightly mounge for the rest of the night.
Ok, I know you might be wondering what "mounge" is. Sharon, who is from Minnesota, was inventing words last night. "Mounge" was the first one which quickly turned into things like:
Mounge chair
Teacher's Mounge
Mounge-tain range
Look's like your dog has mounge
My mounge is acting up again, etc.
Something also happened with the mis-use of the word "contents" but I can't recall exactly how we made fun of that. Maybe Kevin can elaborate in his blog.
In other travesties of the English language, my manager's manager came in and asked me how to spell "solemn" yesterday. I spelled it for her and she went back to her office. I followed her there and when I walked in, she looked at me and said "it still doesn't look right". "It doesn't look right to you because you didn't know how to spell it in the first place" (heh). I took her to www.websters.com to show her that my spelling was correct. I think I rolled my eyes at this point.
Monday, July 19, 2004
Cars, water, sun and orange juice.
The past weekend was lots of fun. As I had planned on Saturday, me and the Burns' headed to HSV for some fine lunchtime dining at Macaroni Grill. I had one of my favorites, the grilled salmon on a bed of spinach and orzo pasta (looks like rice). After that, we trotted down to Toys-R-Us for some gift-age for Kailyn. There's a LOT of toys out these days. Holy crap. After I picked up what I wanted to get her, I went next door to the bookstore to pass the time with some magazines on cars and music.
Next stop was the Nissan dealership. George, the guy who helped me before was there and he had me sign some papers and then me and the crew could go driving by ourselves in whatever I was interested in. Went riding in the Armada first. I've pretty much come to the conclusion that the Armada's a little too big for me. It's really a lot like a Japanese Humvee... The Maxima fit me much better. Nice engine in it too. Plenty of power. Anyways, I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. I'm really adverse to getting a new car and taking that initial depreciation hit. Since I'm in no rush, I'll be doing some checking into used vehicles before making any kind of decision.
Church was great Sunday. I was off drumming duties so I was out in the crowd. I got Kerry to move out of the Baptist back row and get up in the front. Music was great! I especially dug the mandolin playing by Steven. Nice touch.
Had to make a quick run by Wal-Mart afterwards and get some supplies. Dropped stuff off at home then headed over to the pool for Kailyn's birthday party. Had a great crowd there! Jack resurrected the party favorite of all insurance agents... pool surfing. The surfboard is made of 2 floats, one on top of the other. The bottom one is your standard "I don't wanna be white anymore" tanning float while the top is a thick foam rubber one that gives you a somewhat firm surface to stand on. Someone centers the float in front of the diving board then the surfer takes a run down the board, lands on the float and tries to stay up as long as possible. It's a good time for everyone. See pictures of the actions below.
Made a quick run home to get cleaned up and changed then headed back to the Burn's for our group get-together. Big crowd there again! Had a good time talkign about ministry and church in general then a fun time grilling, eating and reading trivial pursuit cards. We are all like a brain trust of odd knowledge. You wouldn't believe some of the junk we know about. It's scary for sure.
Next stop was the Nissan dealership. George, the guy who helped me before was there and he had me sign some papers and then me and the crew could go driving by ourselves in whatever I was interested in. Went riding in the Armada first. I've pretty much come to the conclusion that the Armada's a little too big for me. It's really a lot like a Japanese Humvee... The Maxima fit me much better. Nice engine in it too. Plenty of power. Anyways, I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. I'm really adverse to getting a new car and taking that initial depreciation hit. Since I'm in no rush, I'll be doing some checking into used vehicles before making any kind of decision.
Church was great Sunday. I was off drumming duties so I was out in the crowd. I got Kerry to move out of the Baptist back row and get up in the front. Music was great! I especially dug the mandolin playing by Steven. Nice touch.
Had to make a quick run by Wal-Mart afterwards and get some supplies. Dropped stuff off at home then headed over to the pool for Kailyn's birthday party. Had a great crowd there! Jack resurrected the party favorite of all insurance agents... pool surfing. The surfboard is made of 2 floats, one on top of the other. The bottom one is your standard "I don't wanna be white anymore" tanning float while the top is a thick foam rubber one that gives you a somewhat firm surface to stand on. Someone centers the float in front of the diving board then the surfer takes a run down the board, lands on the float and tries to stay up as long as possible. It's a good time for everyone. See pictures of the actions below.
Made a quick run home to get cleaned up and changed then headed back to the Burn's for our group get-together. Big crowd there again! Had a good time talkign about ministry and church in general then a fun time grilling, eating and reading trivial pursuit cards. We are all like a brain trust of odd knowledge. You wouldn't believe some of the junk we know about. It's scary for sure.
Saturday, July 17, 2004
One week to go.
The days till my departure are rapidly counting down. As a result, I have been showing others how to do what it is I do every day. I received a compliment the other day from one of my co-workers who mentioned that I had gotten to the point in a relationship with many of the vendors I have the opportunity to work with to get them to do things to help me and the company out that they may not be contractually obligated to do. They only do so since we're not only business associates but friends as well. That's something I never really thought about before, but in retrospect, I can see that now. That's not really anything I can train someone into doing though, you just kind of have to BE that way. I like to have fun while I work and what's more fun than working with your friends?
On another front, a buddy of mine hooked me up with a tape drive to use for backups. I scrounged around and found one of my SCSI cards to connect it to. You know, tape just isn't a fast media to work with. Backing up to tape is definitely a "start it and go do something else" operation. I did at least back up all my mail, document, and digital camera files to tape so if something were to happen to my hard drives, I can restore my critical files.
Looks like a blah kind of weekend due to the weather. Probably going to try and get some things done around the house and also mess with my drums a bit. Kev and Stacey are having a birthday get together for Kailyn tomorrow so I need to get out and get her something. I think we'll head to Huntsville after awhile and do some shopping for her and also have lunch at Macaroni Grill. Might go test drive some cars again too. I did get to drive a couple the other day at the Nissan dealership - an Armada, Murano and a Maxima. I liked the Maxima the most I think followed closely by the Armada. I really didn't care for the styling of the Murano after getting in it. Really though, I'm leaning towards the Maxima at this point. That's a good handling vehicle right there.
Talked to Kevin's brother Gareth last night. Kev had shot me some pictures of his new DW kit. Very nice looking set of tubs... the finish was tobacco satin. It's a classy kit for sure.
On another front, a buddy of mine hooked me up with a tape drive to use for backups. I scrounged around and found one of my SCSI cards to connect it to. You know, tape just isn't a fast media to work with. Backing up to tape is definitely a "start it and go do something else" operation. I did at least back up all my mail, document, and digital camera files to tape so if something were to happen to my hard drives, I can restore my critical files.
Looks like a blah kind of weekend due to the weather. Probably going to try and get some things done around the house and also mess with my drums a bit. Kev and Stacey are having a birthday get together for Kailyn tomorrow so I need to get out and get her something. I think we'll head to Huntsville after awhile and do some shopping for her and also have lunch at Macaroni Grill. Might go test drive some cars again too. I did get to drive a couple the other day at the Nissan dealership - an Armada, Murano and a Maxima. I liked the Maxima the most I think followed closely by the Armada. I really didn't care for the styling of the Murano after getting in it. Really though, I'm leaning towards the Maxima at this point. That's a good handling vehicle right there.
Talked to Kevin's brother Gareth last night. Kev had shot me some pictures of his new DW kit. Very nice looking set of tubs... the finish was tobacco satin. It's a classy kit for sure.
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
I'll bet it's raining...
We've been all about the rain here lately. It seems like it's rained everyday for the past week! Late this afternoon some strong storms moved through Madison - there was also a tornado on the ground NE of Huntsville. The tornado warning sirens were in full song. It was a bit creepy to be outside with the sirens blaring and the wind gusting. I was out in it briefly after picking my car up from getting the tires roated and balanced. I quickly made it back to the office and hung out there till it all passed.
Work was interesting to say the least. I've stirred up a nest of activity due to my resignation. At this point, they are looking at a combination of up to 3 people to manage my heavy workload. Hmmm. Got a lot of comments from my co-workers as well: "You dawg!", "Lucky B*stard", "So you escaped?", "You look much happier!", "Do they need anyone else?", "So, how hard is it to do your job?". I'm going to miss working with my friends there of course, but I've got to move on. I'll stay in touch with all them anyway since they're all on IM - it's not like I'm moving away either so hopefully things will stay close to the same.
Met up with the B's for dinner (shocking, isn't it?) and put a small dent in the chicken population. After that was a fun run to Wal-Mart. Band practice was last night to accomodate the schedule of others (I'm off drumming duty this week anyway). I think Asian #2 is off this week as well so A1 & A2 will be in the crowd this Sunday. It's nice to have a break every once in awhile.
Got some new hi-hats today that I had ordered over the weekend. They're the 12" Meinl Alien Hats. Very cool sounding set. The bottom cymbal has jingles mounted to it giving it a different sound from my regular hats. Also, they're smaller in diameter making them very "fast" and slightly crisper than even my 13" K/Z set.
Oh, want to send happy birthday greetings to my sister and dad. Solita's was Monday and dad's was today. I'll add a year to my count as well next month. Crap, this getting old thing stinks.
No F1 racing this weekend. :-(
Work was interesting to say the least. I've stirred up a nest of activity due to my resignation. At this point, they are looking at a combination of up to 3 people to manage my heavy workload. Hmmm. Got a lot of comments from my co-workers as well: "You dawg!", "Lucky B*stard", "So you escaped?", "You look much happier!", "Do they need anyone else?", "So, how hard is it to do your job?". I'm going to miss working with my friends there of course, but I've got to move on. I'll stay in touch with all them anyway since they're all on IM - it's not like I'm moving away either so hopefully things will stay close to the same.
Met up with the B's for dinner (shocking, isn't it?) and put a small dent in the chicken population. After that was a fun run to Wal-Mart. Band practice was last night to accomodate the schedule of others (I'm off drumming duty this week anyway). I think Asian #2 is off this week as well so A1 & A2 will be in the crowd this Sunday. It's nice to have a break every once in awhile.
Got some new hi-hats today that I had ordered over the weekend. They're the 12" Meinl Alien Hats. Very cool sounding set. The bottom cymbal has jingles mounted to it giving it a different sound from my regular hats. Also, they're smaller in diameter making them very "fast" and slightly crisper than even my 13" K/Z set.
Oh, want to send happy birthday greetings to my sister and dad. Solita's was Monday and dad's was today. I'll add a year to my count as well next month. Crap, this getting old thing stinks.
No F1 racing this weekend. :-(
Monday, July 12, 2004
And so it begins...
It's been awhile since my last post simply because a LOT has been going on with me lately. At any rate, I've got some big news to announce...
I'm finalizing a career change!
As you can tell my my history of posts, my current job has it's few high points but the majority of the time is filled with low points. While I like the IT industry, my actual day-to-day tasks are wearing me thin with no real end or turn around in sight. There were some rays of hope that things would change soon but it wasn't anything concrete, just more uncertainty.
There are several benefits to my move (in no particular order):
1) working with old friends
2) less driving
3) interesting work
4) "family" environment
5) still work with technology
6) better growth opportunities
and that's just a few of them!
More to come...
I'm finalizing a career change!
As you can tell my my history of posts, my current job has it's few high points but the majority of the time is filled with low points. While I like the IT industry, my actual day-to-day tasks are wearing me thin with no real end or turn around in sight. There were some rays of hope that things would change soon but it wasn't anything concrete, just more uncertainty.
There are several benefits to my move (in no particular order):
1) working with old friends
2) less driving
3) interesting work
4) "family" environment
5) still work with technology
6) better growth opportunities
and that's just a few of them!
More to come...
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
Yippy-Skippy
Went into the office late today since I would be staying till 7 in the evening due to a "special" client requirement to move their network at 6:30 PM. That'll cost em. Spent the day largely on that and also getting things in-line for a lot of activity next week. Thank goodness for Angela at one of my subcontractors. She's got her act together and makes things happen for me. While on the subject of subs, I've got a great relationship with all the ones I work with:
@ the BIG phone company: Cheryl & Jackie
@ my wiring contractor: Angela, Jesica & Tamra
@ my network mgt. partner: Gail, Ben, John, Brad & Rob
We can all be ourselves on conference calls, reach each other via IM, we've all got each other's private contact numbers... even home numbers in some cases! There's a certain level of trust in that you only use these alternate contact numbers in emergencies - but it's not something they are required to give out. If it wasn't these folks, I couldn't make half the stuff I do happen.
Oh, thanks to the band for moving practice to Thursday night this week on short notice to accomodate my late night at work. Luckily, even if I would have had to miss out, I know all the music this week already so it wouldn't be such a big deal.
Gonna drum a little then call it a night. I got plenty of sleep last night and felt great all day today. Maybe that's what I need more of.
@ the BIG phone company: Cheryl & Jackie
@ my wiring contractor: Angela, Jesica & Tamra
@ my network mgt. partner: Gail, Ben, John, Brad & Rob
We can all be ourselves on conference calls, reach each other via IM, we've all got each other's private contact numbers... even home numbers in some cases! There's a certain level of trust in that you only use these alternate contact numbers in emergencies - but it's not something they are required to give out. If it wasn't these folks, I couldn't make half the stuff I do happen.
Oh, thanks to the band for moving practice to Thursday night this week on short notice to accomodate my late night at work. Luckily, even if I would have had to miss out, I know all the music this week already so it wouldn't be such a big deal.
Gonna drum a little then call it a night. I got plenty of sleep last night and felt great all day today. Maybe that's what I need more of.
Monday, July 05, 2004
Yep.. a 3-day weekend's where it's at...
While floating in the pool today, I have come to the conclusion that a 3-day weekend is the presciption to alleviate the symptoms of work stress. Amazingly enough, I'm actually looking forward to going to work tomorrow. Of course, it could be Mr. Cuervo talking too... (whassup Jose'!)
Slept in a little this morning but finally reached operating temperature around 8:30 or so. Messed around a little then stepped out into an EXTREMELY HUMID day and gave Kelsey a bath. She seemed to enjoy the cool water. Since she's so well-behaved during bathtime and it only take about 10-15 minutes, I'll try harder to bathe her more frequently. I'm sure she'll appreciate that.
Printed out some of the photos from all the pics I took yesterday then got cleaned up to head over to Anderson Sr.'s house for grub: ribs, corn, beans, potato salad, hot dogs, etc. After eating, we inched our way to the comfortable chairs in the den and watched... Sponge Bob, Square Pants... for an HOUR. Some of the kids were watching the show so for some reason, no one took the initiative to change the channel. It wouldn't have mattered anyway, most of us had dozed off. The decision was made to move the fun to the pool so we all packed up our stuff and hit the pool for the remainder of the afternoon.
Had the usual Guad-squaddage and the requisite walk down the mall. I found some sale items at Dillard's that I picked up. Kev got something too. Kyle found some items at Parisian (see his blog for details) and Kev found something else to get at EB Games.
Got a busy week this week. John races this Friday so I hope that by then he has the high-speed miss issues sorted out. We'll see.
Slept in a little this morning but finally reached operating temperature around 8:30 or so. Messed around a little then stepped out into an EXTREMELY HUMID day and gave Kelsey a bath. She seemed to enjoy the cool water. Since she's so well-behaved during bathtime and it only take about 10-15 minutes, I'll try harder to bathe her more frequently. I'm sure she'll appreciate that.
Printed out some of the photos from all the pics I took yesterday then got cleaned up to head over to Anderson Sr.'s house for grub: ribs, corn, beans, potato salad, hot dogs, etc. After eating, we inched our way to the comfortable chairs in the den and watched... Sponge Bob, Square Pants... for an HOUR. Some of the kids were watching the show so for some reason, no one took the initiative to change the channel. It wouldn't have mattered anyway, most of us had dozed off. The decision was made to move the fun to the pool so we all packed up our stuff and hit the pool for the remainder of the afternoon.
Had the usual Guad-squaddage and the requisite walk down the mall. I found some sale items at Dillard's that I picked up. Kev got something too. Kyle found some items at Parisian (see his blog for details) and Kev found something else to get at EB Games.
Got a busy week this week. John races this Friday so I hope that by then he has the high-speed miss issues sorted out. We'll see.
Sunday, July 04, 2004
Humidi-tay
The only thing worth noting from Saturday is that Kyle, my sister and I headed to Hunts-vegas to see Spiderman 2. Excellent flick. Solita originally wanted to see it here in town but the only theater showing here was the crappy Carmike you'd need a tetanus shot to venture into. That place really just needs to be bulldozed. After the movies, we made our way to McAlister's for some foodage. Ran into Jimmy P from my old church there. That was a surprise.
Called it a night after a short stop at Barnes & Noble. Oh, I did manage to see the end of the Nascar race before conking out.
Got up at dawn's crack to catch the French Grand Prix. My boy Fernando Alonso of Renault came in 2nd despite putting up a great fight with The Michael in his Ferrari. What an exciting race!
Church was good this morning. We had our standard technical glich that was eventually worked out. Music was good - I played louder than I normally do, but it felt good to play that way. I did have a malfunction of my own when I bumped my snare strainer - turning it off and turning my snare into a timbale. No biggie, just fixed it and only lost one snare hit. It all went real well.
Ate lunch with the folks and grilled out. I took over grilling duties and let everyone else relax. Shrimp, steaks, beans, salad... it all added up to a filling lunch. Next stop was Dave's where the pool party was already in full swing. Good crowd over there. Had a great time with everyone not to mention more than enough delicious food. More steak for me! Swam around and relaxed till a freak storm blew in out of nowhere. We had just gotten out of the pool when suddenly the wind REALLY picked up and got bad really fast. That little squall blew through as fast as it had come in though so the cookout resumed and we went back to enjoying the outdoors. I took a bazillion pictures. I'll post a few.
Called it a night after a short stop at Barnes & Noble. Oh, I did manage to see the end of the Nascar race before conking out.
Got up at dawn's crack to catch the French Grand Prix. My boy Fernando Alonso of Renault came in 2nd despite putting up a great fight with The Michael in his Ferrari. What an exciting race!
Church was good this morning. We had our standard technical glich that was eventually worked out. Music was good - I played louder than I normally do, but it felt good to play that way. I did have a malfunction of my own when I bumped my snare strainer - turning it off and turning my snare into a timbale. No biggie, just fixed it and only lost one snare hit. It all went real well.
Ate lunch with the folks and grilled out. I took over grilling duties and let everyone else relax. Shrimp, steaks, beans, salad... it all added up to a filling lunch. Next stop was Dave's where the pool party was already in full swing. Good crowd over there. Had a great time with everyone not to mention more than enough delicious food. More steak for me! Swam around and relaxed till a freak storm blew in out of nowhere. We had just gotten out of the pool when suddenly the wind REALLY picked up and got bad really fast. That little squall blew through as fast as it had come in though so the cookout resumed and we went back to enjoying the outdoors. I took a bazillion pictures. I'll post a few.
Friday, July 02, 2004
WOW! Thomas Lang is awesome.
Left the office early yesterday to catch a drum clinic with Thomas Lang, a talented drummer from Austria. Before leaving, I had to swing by my insurance agent's office to get a new homeowners insurance policy in place. Yay. Arrived home to find even less trees in my yard as a result of 5 trees being removed from my yard. The house and yard will be much brighter now, less leaves to deal with in the fall, less bird poop on my patio and no more sap issues parking under trees in the driveway. All in all, it's for a good cause.
Kyle showed up and we headed north. Stopped in at a Kyle Recommended™ eatery, Famous Dave's Pit BBQ and had a filling dinner. I had some surprisingly good cornbread with my meal. I'm usually not a big fan of it but this was exceptional. Made another pit stop to drop video stuff off at Shane's place before we continued on to our destination. After realizing that I didn't figure the estrogen factor into the driving directions I had been provided, we made course corrections and arrived at Soundcheck Studios only a few minutes late. Got in our chairs and spent 2 hours dazzled by Thomas' skill. WOW. HE'S AMAZING. Afterwards, I was able to get him to autograph my DVD of his as well as a poster. Also got a goofy shot of he and I as he was signing my stuff. Ran into Kusi up there too. Gave Jennie a hard time about the driving directions then took off.
Headed back homeward but had to make another pit stop at Shane's to pick up some stuff. Got to talk to Melody a bit and play with the dogs. After a long ride home, I finally got in bed around 1 AM.
I'm a little tired this morning.
Kyle showed up and we headed north. Stopped in at a Kyle Recommended™ eatery, Famous Dave's Pit BBQ and had a filling dinner. I had some surprisingly good cornbread with my meal. I'm usually not a big fan of it but this was exceptional. Made another pit stop to drop video stuff off at Shane's place before we continued on to our destination. After realizing that I didn't figure the estrogen factor into the driving directions I had been provided, we made course corrections and arrived at Soundcheck Studios only a few minutes late. Got in our chairs and spent 2 hours dazzled by Thomas' skill. WOW. HE'S AMAZING. Afterwards, I was able to get him to autograph my DVD of his as well as a poster. Also got a goofy shot of he and I as he was signing my stuff. Ran into Kusi up there too. Gave Jennie a hard time about the driving directions then took off.
Headed back homeward but had to make another pit stop at Shane's to pick up some stuff. Got to talk to Melody a bit and play with the dogs. After a long ride home, I finally got in bed around 1 AM.
I'm a little tired this morning.
